Public debt hit 73 per cent of GDP in September, 4.6 percentage points higher than at the same time the previous year.

However, the Government debt to GDP ratio dropped by 2.5 points compared to the second quarter of the same year.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistical arm, put the eurozone figure at 90 per cent, just up from 89.9 per cent at the end of the second quarter.

In the whole of the EU the ratio was 85.1 per cent, compared with 85 per cent. Compared with the third quarter of 2011, the government debt to GDP ratio rose in both the euro area and the EU27.

At 152.6 per cent, Greece had the highest ratio and Italy was second at 127.3 per cent. Estonia had the lowest ratio at 9.6 per cent.

Compared with the second quarter of 2012, 15 member states had an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the third quarter of 2012, 11 a drop and one had no change.

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